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SERIES 2 |
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Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at six critical moments across the last 1,000 years.
 Listen again to the programme
Programme 2: 31 July
The Napoleonic Wars:
Below Decks and Boney
The Napoleonic Wars have come down to us as the era of the press gang, with men seized from the streets of towns and villages and "pressed" into the King's service. Although the extremes have sometimes been exaggerated, the life of the seaman under arms in Nelson's Navy is one of obeying orders and often harsh conditions.
 
Left - Life below decks
Right - Pursued by the press gangs
Chatham, the historic dockyard in Kent is the focus for this episode of the series, now a heritage site, but once the birthplace of many of Britain's most famous, and often tough-living, vessels.
View of The Historic Dockyard Chatham
But for some, the discipline of a ship of the line was preferable to the savage poverty of life on the land.
Interviewees:
Brian Lavery
Curator of Naval History, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Virginia Preston
Deputy Directory, Institute of Historical Research
Professor Andrew Lambert
Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King's College, University of London
Read the original sources used in the programme.
Useful Links:
The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent.
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Back to Voices of the Powerless homepage
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Audio Help
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DON'T MISS |
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Thursday 9.00-9.45am, rpt 9.30-10.00pm. Latest: Great Reform Act of 1832. Listen again online or download the latest programme as an mp3 file.
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SERIES PAGES |
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GO TO - Homepage.
GO TO Prog l - The Industrial Revolution: Man and Manufacture
GO TO Prog 1 - Read Contemporary Sources
GO TO Prog 2 - The Napoleonic Wars: Below Decks and Boney
GO TO Prog 2 - Read Contemporary Sources
GO TO Prog 3 - Transportation: A Journey Beyond the Seas
GO TO Prog 3 - Read Contemporary Sources
GO TO Prog 4 - Highland Clearances: The Crofters' Farewell
GO TO Prog 4 - Read Contemporary Sources
GO TO Prog 5 - The Waggoners at War
GO TO Prog 5 - Read Contemporary Sources
GO TO Prog 6 - Miners in the Depression: Coal and Dole
GO TO Prog 6 - Read Contemporary Sources
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RELATED PROGRAMMES |
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This Sceptred Isle
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USEFUL LINKS |
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www.bbc.co.uk/history
news.bbc.co.uk
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PRESENTER |
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| Melvyn Bragg |
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Melvyn Bragg presents In Our Time for BBC Radio 4, a series where he and his guests discuss the "Big Ideas" of cultural or scientific significance.
He also presented The Routes of English, his millennial series celebrating 1,000 years of the English language.
Melvyn Bragg was born in 1939 in Wigton, Cumbria - where many of his books are set. He won a scholarship to Oxford to read history, and in 1961 he gained a coveted traineeship with the BBC.
He has presented a number of television series including: Read All about It, Two Thousand Years, and Who's Afraid of the Ten Commandments? and createdThe South Bank Show.
Melvyn presented Start the Week between 1988 and 1998. In his 1998 series On Giant's Shoulders he interviewed scientists about their eminent predecessors.
As well as presenting for Radio 4, he is Controller of Arts for London Weekend Television. He's written 17 novels, the latest of which, The Soldier's Return, won the WH Smith Literary Award.
Melvyn Bragg was made a Life Peer in 1998 and he took the title of Baron Bragg of Wigton in the County of Cumbria.
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